May 3, 1958 Harem-Scarem, Sticky Warm, A Load of Manure and Hundreds of Dandelions

A favorite book and a favorite Saturday morning cartoon, 1958

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"This has been a harem-scarem day.  We had a recital this morning and I went into Bloomington afterwards for a few minutes.  It is trying to rain but is warm--sticky warm.  We had some real cold days and I covered my mums one night but nothing in our yard froze.  A few things in town were nipped--lilacs and ferns.

I cut out a rayon dress yesterday but that's all I've done to it.  It's a blue print that I've had quite a while.  We're going to be home tonight so maybe I can start work on it.  There is a special Mothers' Day Service and tea tomorrow at school so we may go over for a bit.  B was in a skit last night and I went along to see it.  There are lots of things going on at school and will be from now till school is out.

Lulu is still in the hospital but may come up next week.  She feels fine is the strange part, but her shoulder sure looked terrible.  It's a wonder she didn't die.  Poor old Etta was so worried about her.

We're expecting Brays to come next Friday.  They are the missionaries with 3 adopted children.  Our other missionary friends in Champaign--the McKnights--will be here the next weekend.

The tile men still haven't come.  We told them we didn't want them here next Fri. so they promised to come Wed. and be finished by Fri.  I don't really care if they can't come but I didn't want them coming Friday morning and have the upstairs in a mess so we couldn't use it that night. 

We have been digging dandelions out of our yard.  There are hundreds of them and they ruin the grass.  Our yard doesn't look very nice for it needs a load a manure on it.  It seems so hard.  We hope to fix it up a bit next spring.  It will have to do for now.

Hope you both are fine."

                         Lots of love,

                                Bonnie

NOTES:  Lulu and Etta always seemed to me to be about 100 years old.  They lived down the street in a small Victorian style cottage that always looked slightly in need of paint.  I loved to visit them, but the house had the faint and musty scent of lavender, it was very dark inside, and I always wondered what was upstairs but wouldn't dare ask. 

The main characters in the Tom Terrific series were Tom, Manfred and Crabby Appleton.  Mom and I called each other Crabby Appleton on occasion when we thought our behavior warranted it.  I believe the book, published in 1958,  was in my Easter basket.